Abstract

This article gives an existence theory for weak solutions of second order non-elliptic linear Dirichlet problems of the form
\begin{align*}
\nabla'P(x)\nabla u +{\bf HR}u+{\bf S'G}u +Fu &= f+{\bf T'g} \text{ in }\Theta
\\
u&=\varphi\text{ on }\partial \Theta.
\end{align*}
The principal part $\xi'P(x)\xi$ of the above equation is assumed to
be comparable to a quadratic form ${\mathcal Q}(x,\xi) = \xi'Q(x)\xi$ that
may vanish for non-zero $\xi\in\mathbb{R}^n$. This is achieved using
techniques of functional analysis applied to the degenerate Sobolev
spaces $QH^1(\Theta)=W^{1,2}(\Theta,Q)$ and
$QH^1_0(\Theta)=W^{1,2}_0(\Theta,Q)$ as defined in
previous works.
Sawyer and Wheeden give a regularity theory
for a subset of the class of equations dealt with here.